Ranchi: Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das is on Monday learnt to have rebuffed the request of RJD leaders to relax jail manual norms that would have enabled RJD chief Lalu Prasad, lodged at Birsa Munda Central Jail, to meet an unspecified number of well-wishers and family members whenever they wished.

Lalu and 15 others convicted in RC 64A/96 fodder scam case (Deoghar treasury) have been lodged in the jail since Saturday night. The jail manual specifically allows meetings with inmates from 8am to noon from Mondays to Saturdays. Only three persons can meet an inmate at a time.

State RJD president and former Koderma MLA Annapurna Devi and Bihar's RJD MLA Bhola Yadav met Lalu in jail in the morning. They then went to Das's Kanke residence around 12.30pm to request "special provisions" for Lalu owing to his stature but returned disappointed.

"The chief minister was unwilling and did not give any positive response to our request (to bend jail norms related to visiting hours and number of visitors). He told us the jail manual cannot be relaxed for any prisoner," Annapurna said, adding "special provisions could have always been made".

"Meeting hours specified in the manual are for ordinary prisoners. Lalu Prasad is the leader of masses, he has been Bihar chief minister and he is heading a political party. Thousands of supporters from Bihar and Jharkhand are in Ranchi, anxious to meet him, but are refused permission," she said. <>, but also surprisingly claimed that demanding special provision for Lalu was secondary and she had gone to meet the chief minister to discuss a development project related to Koderma.

Early on Monday, Annapurna, Bhola Yadav and former Bihar minister Awadh Bihari Choudhary visited Lalu in jail. Senior lawyer Chitranjan Prasad also met Lalu to discuss aspects of the case, including bail..: